


A Marriage of Convenience

by pirategirljack



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Feels, Fluff, Marriage of Convenience, i know i'm not the only one to think this, sami's weekly one-shots 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 20:03:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6208261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirategirljack/pseuds/pirategirljack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abbie has an answer to Crane's threatened deportation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Marriage of Convenience

“I--I have this thing I wanted to give you.” Abbie fidgeted with the smooth gold band in her fingers for a bit between saying it and laying it flat on the table, then hesitated again before sliding it carefully into his personal space. They’d just finished dessert; he hadn't cleared the plates yet, and she skirted around one of them before pulling her hand back and letting her offering stand on its own.

“A ring?”

Not just any ring, but her father’s, left behind when he disappeared. She didn't say that. Why was this so hard? It had seemed so easy last night when she lay in bed, not sleeping, coming up with solutions to their problem. “I'm just gonna come out and say it, okay? Marry me, Crane. I can't--I can't let you get deported, not now, not when I--not now. I’ll do whatever INS needs to believe us, and we already know everything about each other, and I thought--”

“Abbie. My Abbie.” He reached out that long arm, those long fingers and didn't hesitate at all before he brushed the tear from her cheek, kept his hand there. How could he be so casual? So sure? She wasn’t sure of anything. Except him. He pulled her chair closer, so she was almost inside his arms, and she could see every ounce of kindness in him. And there was so much.

Her chin started wobbling--She clutched his sleeve, held on tight.

“You would bind your fate to mine like this? If the department of immigration finds out it is a sham, surely it would risk your career, perhaps your very freedom?”

“Our fates have been bound from the moment we met, Crane. They would be even with an ocean and a jail cell wall between us. I'm not worried about that. But I'm just starting to feel like myself again, and that's because of you. Because of how much you believe in me. I can't lose that now. I can't have you so far away. I can't--I can't NOT help you, when I have this very simple thing I can do to help you maintain your life. Here. It's not a sacrifice.”

He looked at her like the sun dawned in her face, and she felt like she was the sham--but she knew the marriage would be something wonderful. “Even after all these days and months together, the depth of your heart’s caring amazes me.”

“It's not caring. Well, it is, but it's also selfishness. And stark, blinding fear.” She tried a rueful laugh; it almost worked. “So what do you say? I'm sure I'll be a terrible wife, but I don't think much will change--”

“Yes. Yes, my darling Abbie, I will marry you.”

Relief was so sharp and unexpected, it almost undid her. She wanted to cry. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to laugh until her head fell off, and rolled away, still laughing, and that image made her want to laugh more. Instead of any of these, she leaned her head forward until her forehead settled on his collarbone, and she just breathed. It hadn't been that long ago yet, where she'd realized that she couldn't remember what Crane smelled like, and she’d cried for longer than she really should have; he was her Wilson, and she'd forgotten this vital, living part of him. Now she'd be going to sleep with it every night.

Well, at least on nights when they might be observed.

Crane cradled the back of her head, her neck, letting his fingers settle into her hair and daring to let his fingertips snuggle against her skin. She heard a deep rumble that might have been a smothered laugh in his chest, or a contented hum. She shifted her face to put her ear there, to listen to his life, and he let her move as if he didn't want to startle her, let his fingers find new resting places against her cheek, behind her ear. 

“You will make a wonderful wife,” he said, gently. “And I will try every day to be the best husband I can be. A marriage of convenience is still a marriage, and I will not fail you.” He didn't say “like I failed her”--they both heard that part hovering in the air around them, anyway.

She finally looked up, close to his face, wreathed in his arms. “Are you sure? I mean, it's an option, but I don't want to pressure you--I don't want to force you into anything if you--”

Crane, so proper and reserved, smiled that huge grin of his, and took her face in both of his hands. He kissed the tear streaks on her cheeks, then reached into his pocket and produced--

\--a ring.

An then he blushed, and studied the ring in his fingers instead of looking at her as he spoke. “You were lost to me, and I could not let you go. At some point, it occurred to me why. I could not let you go, Abigail Mills, because I love you, and it is as simple and as complicated as that. Perhaps I have all along, and I will always regret that it took you being lost in another world--twice--for me to realize it.”

She gaped at him. Tried three times before words came out. “Why--why didn't you--you have the ring already?”

“I could not lay more at your feet when your return was so fraught and traumatic. I had meant to wait. To help you heal with no expectations, and see if when the situation changed, perhaps it might be a better time. And then--”

“And then your looming deportation.”

“Indeed. Would you still marry me? Knowing this? Knowing our convenience would be only half the reason for this union?”

For a second, her heart clenched and her lip quivered, and then all the tension went out of her and she flung her arms around his neck as she'd tried to do when he was only a ghost in the catacombs, and had wanted to do every moment since. “Shit,” she said in his ear, as he belatedly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, “that just makes it better. Come on. I know a chapel we can get to in about an hour, and we can have a proper wedding after it’s legal.”

“After you, Leftenant.”


End file.
